How'd You Like a Work-gratis $149,000.00 Job?
Wow, just look at those cow patties! 149,000 thousand of 'em. What a whopper of a job title for a whopping, strapping, polyester-pant suited morbidly parochial self-righteous extreme right-wing butt kisser: Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy! Jeez, sounds like a job you'd have to show up to the office for and actually produce for, if'n when you're paid by the We, The People. But Bush's buddies? No, like Brownie, they don't really have to work for the pay or heck, even be qualified for it.

Well, it seems Karen Hughes was hired to put a "new, improved" face on the United States around the Muslim world after Bush made certain he had made it clear to the Muslim world that he was out for a Crusade and out for their oil. Then, he made certain La Hughes went around the Muslim world insulting every man, woman and child with her views on her religion and her God. Way to go girl, only thing is, she insulted everybody and now that her record has been made public, it's public knowledge that she's scarcer than hens' teeth in the public arena. Mid year 2005 was the last time she made any forays into the Middle East, her prime assignment.

She did make one little trip to Central America December 4 - 6, but after that, and between that and September 2005, as they say in her hometown, nada. But, in a pattern standard under the Enron/Halliburton/Bush-Cheney modus operandi, she's drawing her salary, at our expense, and doing nothing.

The Medal of Freedom, For Utter Stupidity
This prez is quite free with the dispensation of the Medal of Freedom; seems that just anybody is a candidate to receive it. And "read my lips," Karen Hughes will get one, despite this troubling report of her gargantuan stupidity when it comes to world affairs and "wining the hearts and minds of the Muslim world." Guy Dinmore wrote in The Financial Times, on September 27, 2005: "Indignant Saudi women on Tuesday turned the tables on Karen Hughes, the U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy [gag], rejecting her analogy of them as the 'broken wing' of a bird that the United States will help fly."

Nothing like butting into someone else's business is there? Or insulting a whole culture? Truth be told, there are fourteen of us, and that's a lot of farms and ranches, with a lot of animals, but we haven't one, not even a chicken, quite so stupid. And so, Hughes and Bush handed Bin Laden one more triumph, on a Texas platter.

Carmen, In The Great Room
All of this came from Carmen, as she warmed her hands by the fire and sipped one of Schuyler's good cocktails. Tonight he made Sapphire Martinis, with Bombay Sapphire Gin and a dash of Parfait d'Amour. Just about now, Carmen said, she needed her cocktail because she was incensed at her tax money going to pay the salary of another incompetent Bush bedfellow, who does keep strange bedfellows. Remarkable drink in hand, she quoted Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who said: "If you read Osama Bin Laden's speeches, they begin with descriptions of the US occupation of the Arabian Peninsula driven by our religious goals and that it is our religious purpose that must be confronted. That argument is incredibly powerful, not only to religious Muslims but also to secular Muslims. Everything Hughes says makes their case." Remember, Carmen, said, not even one of our chickens.

Relevance?
Well, Carmen's husband Jim said, what is happening over the Danish cartoons isn't happening in a vacuum, and La Hughes carefully laid the groundwork for the hatred bubbling in the Muslim cauldron. Whatever little the Danish cartoons did, the backlash can be placed firmly at her feet: it is her nightmarish stupidity that made a few innocent but insensitive cartoons ignite the Muslim world. Thanks, Karen.

Author and former senior advisor to President Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, quite aptly calls Hughes "Bin Laden's Little Helper."

Dinner, By A Lot of The Gang
It seems like everybody pitched in to help prepare dinner tonight. The teenagers were especially helpful, preparing all the place settings at both dining tables, theirs and ours.

Beatrix made an exquisite Chicken Liver Pâté, which she served on some wonderful sourdough bread, that Max had made the day before. Beatrix always makes her pâté in our LeCreuset terrines because she likes their heft. She served this wonderful appetizer with a no vintage Deutz Brut sparkling wine, heralding a great winter's night dinner. Her beautiful pâté had the added benefit of letting us quickly forget La Loser Hughes.

Jeremy had lots of fun making our soup, a Crab Soup garnished with perfect avocado cubes and spritzed with fresh Mexican limes. The soup had plenty of cilantro and some finely chopped Serrano peppers. He paired the soup with a creamy chardonnay, the Omaka Springs from the Marlborough wine region of New Zealand.

Art and Terry prepared what they called a very simple dish, Ecuadorian Garlic Shrimp with a dash of fresh Mexican Limes. Served on a bed of fluffy white rice and bacon-laden black beans, the dish was sublime, as was the Sauvignon Blanc based Château Bonnet Blanc.

Instead of the usual fruit-based sorbet we have between the fish and the meat courses, tonight Sagidah made us an unusual salad that we found amazingly good, Beet, Lentil and Feta Cheese Salad that none of us had ever experienced, but it was perfect. She poured us a 2004 Inman Family Vineyards Pinot Gris which was a good match for the salad.

Jeremy and Beatrix wanted to introduce us to one of their English dishes, Boiled Beef with Horseradish. We were game. The dish was good, especially when paired with the wine they brought from their wine cellar, a Lucien Albrecht Alsatian Gewürztraminer.

Boiled beef: a tricky dish, when you think about it, but when prepared by these expert cooks, it was exquisite, and anything spicy, even horseradish, suits our palates beautifully.

Back to the Teenagers
We returned to the great room to rejoin the teenagers and have our after-dinner coffee. Max had a new brew tonight, and we had Charlotte's perfect vanilla Madeleines.

Liz, wittily told us that Mark Twain had never met Karen Hughes, but if he had, he probably would have said this about her oratorical outings: "A very dangerous thing, for often the wings which take one into clouds of oratorical enthusiasm are wax and melt up there, and down you come." As we say up here, you can put all the lipstick in the world on the sow, but at the end of the day….., and so we left it at that, neighbors departed to do last minute chores, and we went out to blanket the horses against the bone-chilling wind.

Summary
George Bush declared Karen Hughes, AKA as Bin Laden's Little Helper, an ambassador and sent her to convert the Muslim world to her view of the world, which is limited to Fort Worth and Austin, Texas. Not bad things, if you're into ranching and such, but if you're into railing against the Caliphate, you're in deep horse manure, and so, we haven't heard much lately of La Hughes, who wears her polyester pantsuits the way Joan of Arc wore her armor. Now that La Hughes has stirred up the Muslims on their own turf, maybe Saint Joan's end would be just as fitting for Ms. Hughes?